Yes, I know, I've been gone a while. I just started work and I just got back from a family vacation, so I'm pretty busy. Yeah. Bad excuse, I know. *riffles through her Book of Excuses to find a better one* Actually, that is what happened. I know my last chapter was extremely confusing and I've been writing in first person for a while, but your questions are about to be answered.

Nip: Her name's actually pretty easy to pronounce, just say it like it's spelled: Nen-ye-thi-len. You'll find out why Moonstream was at Discipline in this chapter. You'll find out who she practises on in this chapter, too.

Yeah, I've been trying to keep the diary entries from chopping up the story. I think the last one was kinda iffy, but I'll try harder in the future. Thanks!

Special thanks to all of my lovely reviewers! Chocolate chip cookies and vanilla coke to all!

***

Chapter 4: Inquisition

***

Once, during a particularly bad beating, I found myself wishing desperately that I could call the authorities and have them help me. I even envisioned them taking my father away and locking him up forever. Right in the middle of this particular "training session," he stopped suddenly, and looked at me with the strangest look on his face. KInd of caught between furious and terrified. He didn't beat me for a whole week after that.

I told myself it was just coincidence, but I decided to experiment anyway. I showed him my dreams sometimes. It was oddly satisfying to see him suffer the way I did, but I soon stopped. Doing too many things with my head gives me headaches.

I haven't done this for a while, and I wonder if it will work on Lark. I decide to show her the one I had a couple days ago. The one I was sure had already happened.

I call up the vision in my mind, every detail still vivid to me. Then I lock my eyes with Lark's so she can't turn away, and I re-live that night.

When I let her go, she looks at my strangely and asks when I had that vision.

"A couple of nights ago. Don't worry. It's already happened."

"Yes, I know."

Now it's my turn to look at her strangely. "How do you know?"

"I was just about to ask you that. I know because I saw many of these things myself, or eye witnesses recounted them to me. So, how do you know?"

I shrug and mumble, "Just do."

Moonstream looks irritated. "What are you two talking about?"

Lark beckons to her and they go down the stairs followed by Rosethorn. Sandry, Tris, Briar, and Daja remain determinedly fixed to their spots, each staring at me openly.

I shift my feet back and forth, uncomfortable under their combined gazes. "Didn't your parents teach you that it's rude to stare?" I ask irritably.

Sandry and Daja frown and a closed expression appears on Tris's face. Only Briar seems unfazed. He responds, "No. I haven't got any parents."

I feel my expression soften. I have seen many parentless children in my visions, but I never thought I'd meet one. "What happened to them?"

"Well, I don't rightly know about my dad, but my mum (AN: is it mum or mom in the Circle universe?) got knifed in the back on her way home once. The landlord threw me out. That's where the Thief Lord found me." He shows me his hands palms down, revealing black ink x's etched into the skin between his thumb and first finger. "Niko came to my trial the last time I was caught and brought me to Winding Circle because he saw my magic."

I nod. He's telling the truth. I don't know how I know, but I do. Maybe it's more of this magic stuff they keep talking about.

I look to Sandry, Daja, and Tris. *What about them?* I wonder. *Why do they look so lost?*

Daja recovers and asks me the question that I knew would turn up some time. "Why didn't you ever talk before now?"

I bite my lip and look down before responding. When I speak, my voice is very soft. "Because...because I didn't know if I could trust you."

Sandry looks indignant. "Of course you can trust us. Who did you think we were, the Guard?"

I smile wryly. Then I decide to change the subject. "Why was Moonstream here?"

"Lark sent for her after you left." Sandry looks down the stairs where muffled voices fill the air. "I think they're talking about you."

I clench my jaw. This is exactly what I was afraid of. Everyone discussing me. "They are. That's what happened when--" I swallow my words quickly and say, "Never mind. Aren't you guys tired of standing there? Come in. Welcome to my humble abode." I sweep my arm around at my sparsely furnished room, giddy at having almost given It away.

Sandry bounces in and plops down on my bed. Daja hesitantly follows her and sits on the chair next to it. Briar crosses to my window and leans against the sill. Tris closes the door and picks up the chair I had knocked over when she first came into the room. When she finishes settling her skirts around her, she looks at me and starts to ask something.

I shake my head. "No. No more questions. No questions about me, anyway. I feel like a murder suspect. What about you guys? I've only heard from Briar so far."

Tris immediately crosses her arms and looks at Sandry expectantly. I sit down cross-legged on the rug in the middle of the floor and look at her also. Sandry figets nervously and asks, "Why are you looking at me? There's nothing to tell. My parents were killed in an epidemic on Hatar. I was brought here because I have thread magic. There. Are you happy?" She glares at Tris, who smiles sweetly back at her.

"Your turn, Daja," prods Briar from the window. Daja scowles at him, but speaks anyway. "My family was killed when Third Ship Kisubo sank in a storm. I was the only survivor. The Trader council declared me trangshi--outcast--but my debt was repaid when I helped to save a caravan of Traders from a forest fire."

A memory suddenly overtakes me.

*Flash back*

**She looked down at her hands, wreathed in flame but unburning. They were dark like Daja's, not like her own small, pale hands.**

*End Flash back*

"That was Daja, then," I say out loud, forgetting the other occupants of the room. I receive several confused stares as a response.

"I Saw something once," I explain. "I was in the middle of a huge forest fire, but the fire didn't burn me. I looked down at my hands and they were your hands," I add to Daja.

Briar whistles. "Weird."

"Yes," I agree vehemently.

"Anyway," Daja interjects, "enough about me. Tris?"

For a minute, Tris looks like she's going to refuse but apparently she decides against it. "When my magic started breaking out a couple of years ago, my family thought I had some kind of spirit or I was crazy. They shipped me off from relative to relative until I ran out of relatives. Then they sent me to Stone Circle Temple, except I didn't get along with the other girls." Tris grins wickedly.

As the talk ranges from subject to subject, I sit silently, thinking about what Tris had said. *Maybe we have more in common than we think,* I muse. *And maybe, just maybe, we can be friends.*

***

I hope that answered some of you questions without creating any new ones. If I missed something, just tell me. I'm EXTREMELY absent-minded. Not to mention very tired, so please excuse any spelling mistakes. I'm just going to post this right now and if I find any major errors, I'll correct them later. I do have a real plot, but I don't want to rush my story too much, so it's not going to come out until later. Please be patient with me until it does.

Please review, as always.

-littlehorse :)